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Within a three hour drive of the stucco, glass and concrete houses of Las Cruces lies another kind of abode altogether, the Gila Cliff Dwellings.
Researchers estimate that several generations of as many as 15 families lived in the 40 or so rooms built into the natural caves overlooking a small tributary of the Gila River. Based on examination of the timbers used in the construction of the rooms, occupancy began about 1280.
The people who lived in the cave houses supported themselves by raising corn, beans and squash, gathering wild food and hunting – and they made distinctive pottery. It is this pottery, in part, that allows researchers to place them as members of the Mogollon culture, a widespread Southwestern culture that flourished for approximately 1,200 years until the 1300s. It is not known why the culture ended and where the people went who had lived there, but by the mid-1300s the cliff houses sat empty.
The facts are not known, but a modern visitor to the dwellings can still sense the presence of the people living there. A storage bin containing dried corn; small rooms with beds that tempt visitors to close their eyes and imagine the people sleeping there 700 years before; a handprint, in crimson, on the cavern wall, a reminder of people thinking and creating.
Visitors are probably seeing the dwellings and the surrounding mountains as they appeared to those people long ago. Forested mountains and canyons, the sound of wind blowing in the treetops and down below the gurgling small stream where the ancient dwellers filled their pots with water to carry to their houses above.
The Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument borders on the Gila Wilderness, the nation’s first designated wilderness area. It can be reached by a paved highway, and as part of the National Park system requires an entrance fee. National Park Service personnel are available to answer questions and give tours.